Audrey Flack - photorealism

Photorealism

In 1965, Audrey Flack painted her first portrait from a color photograph, and this led her to be further isolated from the art community. This was because she did not disguise that her work was from a photograph, and therefore she was cut off from realists. It was acceptable to paint from a photograph, and many great artists did this, but it was not aceptable if the painting looked like a photograph.

With this adaption of the photographic image, though, Flack opened herself up to a completely new vision of reality called photorealism. She was the first photorealist painter to get into the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in 1966. She received some critical acclaim, but there were also many who questioned the validity of photorealism and saw it more as a weakened form of pop art. At the time many photorealists used tough, masculine subjects that were unemotional such as motorcyles and cars. Flack, however, painted emotionally-charged subjects like some I discuss on this website (Flack 20-21; Gouma-Peterson 52).

Kennedy Motorcade (1964)

Sisters of the Immaculate Conception Marching for Freedom (1965)

Farb Family Portrait (1969-70)

Macarena of Miracles (1971)

Crayola (1972-73)

Self-Portrait (1974)

Buddha (1975)

World War II Vanitas (1976-77)

Marilyn Vanitas (1977)

We Are All Light and Energy (1981)